Welsh Journals

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No. 12.] DECEMBEE. [Id. ON THE CONDITION AND PEOSPECTS OF OUE DENOMINATION IN THE COUNTY. III. IN our two preceding articles, we have tried to set before our readers the actual condition of our Churches in the County of Monmouthshire; and also to make some suggestions as to the remedies for our present weak and unhealthy state. We have appealed to the Deacons, pointing out how much they can do to infuse a spirit of zeal and earnestness into the hearts of their brethren, and we have appealed to the people themselves. . We have tried to shew that no Church need be " weak" because it is "ismall"; that is, that weakness is a spiritual defect which may exist in a large as well as in a small Church. We have endea¬ voured to exhibit the great and often forgotten fact that liberality is a Christian virtue, and is closely connected with the spirituahty of the Church. To us there seems no question but that a niggard¬ ly hand, and an illiberal heart prove a low state of religious life. If Christianity aims a blow at any vice of human nature, it aims at selfishness: and the want of liberality is the direct product of a selfish disposition. Light and darkness may mingle, but they produce twilight; and Christianity may exist in a man in whom selfish desires and a greedy nature still survive, but such Christi¬ anity is a very imperfect thing, the light of God can only glimmer in such a man in a feeble twilight. We are perfectly aware that good men are to be found who have never thought of the subject in this way; who have never perceived the connection between believing and giving, or have never bestowed any thought upon